cybersecurity | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Cybersecurity news can sometimes feel like a never-ending horror movie, can't it? Just when you think the villains are locked up, a new threat emerges from the shadows. This week is no exception, with tales of exploited flaws, international espionage, and AI shenanigans that could make your head spin. But don't worry, we're here to break it all down in plain English and arm you with the knowledge you need to stay safe. So grab your popcorn (and maybe a firewall), and let's dive into the latest cybersecurity drama! ⚡ Threat of the Week Critical Fortinet Flaw Comes Under Exploitation: Fortinet revealed that a critical security flaw impacting FortiManager (CVE-2024-47575, CVSS score: 9.8), which allows for unauthenticated remote code execution, has come under active exploitation in the wild. Exactly who is behind it is currently not known. Google-owned Mandiant is tracking the activity under the name UNC5820. 🚢🔐 K...

A suspected Russian hybrid espionage and influence operation has been observed delivering a mix of Windows and Android malware to target the Ukrainian military under the Telegram persona Civil Defense. Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Mandiant are tracking the activity under the name UNC5812 . The threat group, which operates a Telegram channel named civildefense_com_ua , was created on September 10, 2024. As of writing, the channel has 184 subscribers. It also maintains a website at civildefense.com[.]ua that was registered on April 24, 2024. "'Civil Defense' claims to be a provider of free software programs designed to enable potential conscripts to view and share crowdsourced locations of Ukrainian military recruiters," the company said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Should these programs be installed on Android devices that have Google Play Protect disabled, they are engineered to deploy an operating system-specific commodity malware alo...

Three malicious packages published to the npm registry in September 2024 have been found to contain a known malware called BeaverTail, a JavaScript downloader and information stealer linked to an ongoing North Korean campaign tracked as Contagious Interview. The Datadog Security Research team is monitoring the activity under the name Tenacious Pungsan , which is also known by the monikers CL-STA-0240 and Famous Chollima. The names of the malicious packages, which are no longer available for download from the package registry, are listed below - passports-js, a backdoored copy of the passport (118 downloads) bcrypts-js, a backdoored copy of bcryptjs (81 downloads) blockscan-api, a backdoored copy of etherscan-api (124 downloads) Contagious Interview refers to a yearlong-campaign undertaken by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that involves tricking developers into downloading malicious packages or seemingly innocuous video conferencing applications as part...

SaaS Adoption is Skyrocketing, Resilience Hasn't Kept Pace SaaS platforms have revolutionized how businesses operate. They simplify collaboration, accelerate deployment, and reduce the overhead of managing infrastructure. But with their rise comes a subtle, dangerous assumption: that the convenience of SaaS extends to resilience. It doesn't. These platforms weren't built with full-scale data protection in mind . Most follow a shared responsibility model — wherein the provider ensures uptime and application security, but the data inside is your responsibility. In a world of hybrid architectures, global teams, and relentless cyber threats, that responsibility is harder than ever to manage. Modern organizations are being stretched across: Hybrid and multi-cloud environments with decentralized data sprawl Complex integration layers between IaaS, SaaS, and legacy systems Expanding regulatory pressure with steeper penalties for noncompliance Escalating ransomware threats and inside...

Operational Technology (OT) security has affected marine vessel and port operators, since both ships and industrial cranes are being digitalized and automated at a rapid pace, ushering in new types of security challenges. Ships come to shore every six months on average. Container cranes are mostly automated. Diagnostics, maintenance, upgrade and adjustments to these critical systems are done remotely, often by third-party vendor technicians. This highlights the importance of proper secure remote access management for industrial control systems (ICS).  Learn more in our Buyer's Guide for Secure Remote Access Lifecycle Management .  We at SSH Communications Security (SSH) have been pioneering security solutions that bridge the gap between IT and OT in privileged access management . Let's investigate how we helped two customers solve their critical access control needs with us. Secure Remote Access Around the Globe to 1000s of Ships  In the maritime industry, ensurin...

A new attack technique could be used to bypass Microsoft's Driver Signature Enforcement (DSE) on fully patched Windows systems, leading to operating system (OS) downgrade attacks. "This bypass allows loading unsigned kernel drivers, enabling attackers to deploy custom rootkits that can neutralize security controls, hide processes and network activity, maintain stealth, and much more," SafeBreach researcher Alon Leviev said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The latest findings build on an earlier analysis that uncovered two privilege escalation flaws in the Windows update process ( CVE-2024-21302 and CVE-2024-38202 ) that could be weaponized to rollback an up-to-date Windows software to an older version containing unpatched security vulnerabilities. The exploit materialized in the form of a tool dubbed Windows Downdate, which, per Leviev, could be used to hijack the Windows Update process to craft fully undetectable, persistent, and irreversible downgrades on...

The infamous cryptojacking group known as TeamTNT appears to be readying for a new large-scale campaign targeting cloud-native environments for mining cryptocurrencies and renting out breached servers to third-parties. "The group is currently targeting exposed Docker daemons to deploy Sliver malware, a cyber worm, and cryptominers, using compromised servers and Docker Hub as the infrastructure to spread their malware," Assaf Morag, director of threat intelligence at cloud security firm Aqua, said in a report published Friday. The attack activity is once again a testament to the threat actor's persistence and its ability to evolve its tactics and mounting multi-stage assaults with the goal of compromising Docker environments and enlisting them into a Docker Swarm. Besides using Docker Hub to host and distribute their malicious payloads, TeamTNT has been observed offering the victims' computational power to other parties for illicit cryptocurrency mining, thus di...

Four members of the now-defunct REvil ransomware operation have been sentenced to several years in prison in Russia, marking one of the rare instances where cybercriminals from the country have been convicted of hacking and money laundering charges. Russian news publication Kommersant reported that a court in St. Petersburg found Artem Zaets, Alexei Malozemov, Daniil Puzyrevsky, and Ruslan Khansvyarov guilty of illegal circulation of means of payment. Puzyrevsky and Khansvyarov have also been found guilty of using and distributing malware. To that end, Zaets and Malozemov were sentenced to 4.5 and 5 years in prison. Khansvyarov and Puzyrevsky received a jail term of 5.5 and 6 years, respectively. The four individuals are part of a group of 14 people who were initially detained in connection with the case. As reported by TASS back in January 2022, eight of them were charged by the court for their malicious activities. The remaining four members, Andrei Bessonov, Mikhail Golovach...

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has detailed a new malicious email campaign targeting government agencies, enterprises, and military entities. "The messages exploit the appeal of integrating popular services like Amazon or Microsoft and implementing a zero-trust architecture," CERT-UA said . "These emails contain attachments in the form of Remote Desktop Protocol ('.rdp') configuration files." Once executed, the RDP files establish a connection with a remote server, enabling the threat actors to gain remote access to the compromised hosts, steal data, and plant additional malware for follow-on attacks. Infrastructure preparation for the activity is believed to have been underway since at least August 2024, with the agency stating that it's likely to spill out of Ukraine to target other countries. CERT-UA has attributed the campaign to a threat actor it tracks as UAC-0215. Amazon Web Services (AWS), in an advisory of its own...

A security flaw impacting the Wi-Fi Test Suite could enable unauthenticated local attackers to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges. The CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) said the susceptible code from the Wi-Fi Alliance has been found deployed on Arcadyan FMIMG51AX000J routers. The vulnerability is being tracked as CVE-2024-41992. "This flaw allows an unauthenticated local attacker to exploit the Wi-Fi Test Suite by sending specially crafted packets, enabling the execution of arbitrary commands with root privileges on the affected routers," the CERT/CC said in an advisory released Wednesday. Wi-Fi Test Suite is an integrated platform developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance that automates testing Wi-Fi components or devices. While open-source components of the toolkit are publicly available , the full package is available only to its members.  SSD Secure Disclosure, which released details of the flaw back in August 2024, described it as a case of command injectio...

Apple has publicly made available its Private Cloud Compute (PCC) Virtual Research Environment (VRE), allowing the research community to inspect and verify the privacy and security guarantees of its offering. PCC, which Apple unveiled earlier this June, has been marketed as the "most advanced security architecture ever deployed for cloud AI compute at scale." With the new technology, the idea is to offload computationally complex Apple Intelligence requests to the cloud in a manner that doesn't sacrifice user privacy. Apple said it's inviting "all security and privacy researchers — or anyone with interest and a technical curiosity — to learn more about PCC and perform their own independent verification of our claims." To further incentivize research, the iPhone maker said it's expanding the Apple Security Bounty program to include PCC by offering monetary payouts ranging from $50,000 to $1,000,000 for security vulnerabilities identified in it. Th...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved from a futuristic concept to a potent weapon in the hands of bad actors. Today, AI-based attacks are not just theoretical threats—they're happening across industries and outpacing traditional defense mechanisms.  The solution, however, is not futuristic. It turns out a properly designed identity security platform is able to deliver defenses against AI impersonation fraud. Read more about how a secure-by-design identity platform can eliminate AI deepfake fraud and serve as a critical component in this new era of cyber defense.  The Growing Threat of AI Impersonation Fraud Recent incidents highlight the alarming potential of AI-powered fraud: A staggering $25 million was fraudulently transferred during a video call where deepfakes impersonated multiple executives. KnowBe4, a cybersecurity leader, was duped by deepfakes during hiring interviews, allowing a North Korean attacker to be onboarded to the organization. CEO of ...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged four current and former public companies for making "materially misleading disclosures" related to the large-scale cyber attack that stemmed from the hack of SolarWinds in 2020 . The SEC said the companies – Avaya, Check Point, Mimecast , and Unisys – are being penalized for how they handled the disclosure process in the aftermath of the SolarWinds Orion software supply chain incident and downplaying the extent of the breach, thereby infringing the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and related rules under them. To that end, Avaya will pay a fine of $1 million, Check Point will pay $995,000, Mimecast will pay $990,000, and Unisys will pay $4 million to settle the charges. In addition, the SEC has charged Unisys with disclosure controls and procedures violations. "While public companies may become targets of cyberattacks, it is incumbent upon them to not further victimize their sh...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an advanced version of the Qilin ransomware sporting increased sophistication and tactics to evade detection. The new variant is being tracked by cybersecurity firm Halcyon under the moniker Qilin.B. "Notably, Qilin.B now supports AES-256-CTR encryption for systems with AESNI capabilities, while still retaining Chacha20 for systems that lack this support," the Halcyon Research Team said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Additionally, RSA-4096 with OAEP padding is used to safeguard encryption keys, making file decryption without the attacker's private key or captured seed values impossible." Qilin, also known as Agenda , first came to the attention of the cybersecurity community in July/August 2022, with initial versions written in Golang before switching to Rust. A May 2023 report from Group-IB revealed that the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) scheme allows its affiliates to anywhere between 80% to 85% of ...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a security flaw impacting Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Development Kit (CDK) that could have resulted in an account takeover under specific circumstances. "The impact of this issue could, in certain scenarios, allow an attacker to gain administrative access to a target AWS account, resulting in a full account takeover," Aqua researchers Ofek Itach and Yakir Kadkoda said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Following responsible disclosure on June 27, 2024, the issue was addressed by the project maintainers in CDK version 2.149.0 released in July. AWS CDK is an open-source software development framework for defining cloud application resources using Python, TypeScript, or JavaScript and provisioning them via CloudFormation. The problem identified by Aqua builds upon prior findings from the cloud security firm about shadow resources in AWS, and how predefined naming conventions for AWS Simple Storage Service (S3) buckets ...